The government stimuli, low interest rate and slew of other financial aid have ameliorated the negative impact brought forth by the global financial crisis and have finally found their way into the private market. In Singapore, the economy has outperformed expectations. Demand for residential properties in Singapore has also been increasing, lifted largely by the discounted home prices, the strong latent demand and the low cost of funds. The strong demand has resulted in the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Property Price Index (PPI), including Jones Lang LaSalle price indices, to surge by 8.0-16.0% q-o-q in 3Q09.

 

While buying interest has cooled somewhat after the government's earlier attempt to cool the market, the sales volume in general are still higher than the average over the same period in 2007. We expect further measures to slow the market, especially if sales volume over the last few months of the year into early 2010 continues to exceed the market norm.